Gone in seven minutes: 180,000 fight for last tickets to Perth AFL grand final

The AFL believes a world record has been broken as grand final tickets in Perth raced out the door less than 10 minutes after going on sale on Thursday.

It comes as league boss Gillon McLachlan cautiously approached the issue of a contingency plan if COVID-19 cases were to appear in Western Australia in the days leading up to Saturday-week’s match.

AFL CEO Gillon McLachlan said the record ticket numbers showed Perth’s appetite for demand.Credit: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

WA’s thirst for football has left fans high and dry after the remaining 10,250 tickets to next Saturday’s AFL grand final between Melbourne and Western Bulldogs at Optus Stadium sold out in just seven minutes on Thursday morning.

According to the AFL, there were 180,000 people waiting in the online queue just after 10am trying to buy seats from Ticketmaster for the historic twilight season decider in Perth on September 25.

The AFL said on Thursday the on sale was the busiest in Ticketmaster Australia’s history, with the online queue peaking five times more than for the 2020 grand final in Brisbane, the first held outside Victoria.

“I know definitively it’s an Australian record, but I think it’s a world record, we’re having that checked,” McLachlan said.

“Western Australians love our game. They love their football, it’s a passionate football state.”

It’s also a state that has been able to nearly rid itself of the virus completely for the last few months, which is the main reason the league packed up and move most of its finals series to Perth.

McLachlan avoided commenting on if the AFL would consider moving the game at short notice if it appeared a short lockdown was inevitable.

“If something happened ... we’ve been dealing with for two years and we would be able to find a way to deal with it,” he said.

“That’s all I’ll say. If, for some reason, things changed, we’d deal with it, absolutely. It wouldn’t be ideal, but that’s what we do. It’s not something we are contemplating or thinking about.“

McLachlan admits that every decision being made in the build up to the grand final is to ensure the safety of the players and mitigate risk so the game can go ahead.

Western Bulldogs and Melbourne players will be isolating in separate rooms for the Brownlow Medal on Sunday, while there will be no grand final parade for fear of an outbreak

“It’s the way we are wired now,” McLachlan said.

“We are here and have got through the last two seasons by playing the percentages and making percentage decisions right the way through. I think we’ve been rewarded for that. That’s just our mindset.
“There’s risk every day, we’ll deal with it as it comes up.”

The AFL’s customer and commercial executive general manager, Kylie Rogers, said the interest for this year’s grand final in Perth was unprecedented.

“The fans in WA have wholeheartedly welcomed the AFL and welcomed the event,” she said.

“Today’s on-sale and record-breaking number of fans wanting to purchase tickets demonstrates the WA community’s excitement for the first-ever grand final in the state.

“We thank Ticketmaster for their efforts today and look forward to putting on the best show possible Saturday next week.”

Ticketmaster Australia managing director Gavin Taylor said Thursday’s mad rush for tickets showed how passionate WA was towards its football.

“Footy fever in Perth is at an all-time high and demand for AFL Grand Final tickets broke new records,” he said.

“The online queue peaking at 180,000 fans ... physically would’ve stretched around the length of Optus Stadium and all the way back to the Burswood Peninsula.”

Hundreds of people line up outside Crown Perth to purchase grand final tickets on Thursday morning.Credit: Megan Birch

Some of those on the mad hunt for tickets for the September 25 event believed Ticketmaster would open a pre-sale queue at 9.50am but the agency stumped the public when that window went live at 9.30am.

Those hopeful of tickets found themselves tens of thousands behind others in the virtual queue when it opened at 9.30am, while others somehow skipped ahead of them when joining minutes later.

One lucky Eagles fan found himself 536th in the queue when the on sale began and was able to secure a maximum four tickets. Another on the hunt was around 3000th in line and able to purchase only one seat, while a colleague who was 6236th in the queue was unlucky not to have the option to buy one.

The AFL announced last week any leftover tickets for the general public would be made available online but that did not stop a group of 25 people camping outside Crown Perth’s box office to try their luck.

One of them – Joanne, who was trying to secure grand final seats for herself and her disabled son – had weathered wild overnight rain and storms after camping outside the Ticketmaster agency since 9.30am on Wednesday.

Despite being the first person in the line, she was not guaranteed a ticket, given the Crown box office had only three terminals and those operating them would still have to log on to secure tickets, just like the public.

Crown said its staff would help people in the line secure tickets online from Ticketmaster on their phones, with a maximum of four tickets per transaction allowed. Joanne was eventually among the lucky ones to secure tickets from the 180,000 fighting virtually online.

Any hope of additional seats being redirected to the public pool from the 24,000 given to Melbourne and Bulldogs members was quickly dashed when they sold out within hours of being released on Monday and Tuesday, despite Victorian-based members being unable to travel to WA.

The AFL strongly encourages fans to only purchase tickets through the authorised ticket partner Ticketmaster.

“The interest in the 2021 grand final in Perth has been unprecedented, and that is reflective of how quickly the member on-sale sold out over the last two days,” AFL executive general manager Kylie Rogers said.

“We look forward to a full house at Optus Stadium and deliver the WA community an epic event to remember.”

More than 27,000 grand final tickets have already been allocated to AFL members, sponsors and corporate packages, while members from the two clubs got priority access to 12,000 each.

Some tickets have already appeared for resale online, with advertisements only lasting minutes on Gumtree before being removed.

It is unclear if this is due to punters being eager to make a quick sale in a state which bans ticket scalping, or whether the website is removing the posts. Gumtree was contacted for comment.

The anti-scalping laws were rushed through Parliament just in time for the historic grand final in Perth and restrict the resale of a ticket to no more than 10 per cent above its original cost.

A Consumer Protection WA spokesman said any person or website advertising the resale of a ticket at an inflated price could be liable for prosecution including a $20,000 fine for individuals and $100,000 for companies.

Grand final formalities falling into place

The formalities surrounding the grand final continue to be finalised, with locals Birds of Tokyo tipped to be confirmed as the half-time entertainment this week.

Melbourne legend Garry Lyon and Bulldogs stalwart Chris Grant were selected on Tuesday to hand the premiership cup over if their team wins. West Coast icons Glen Jakovich, John Worsfold and Andrew Embley will also take part in the medal and cup ceremonies.

A Melbourne-style grand final street parade has been scrapped in favour of a free, ticketed open training session at Optus Stadium on September 23 and the two clubs parading down the Murray Street Mall on grand final eve.

The City of Perth on Wednesday said its scaled-down ‘people’s parade’ on September 24 came after the AFL dumped plans for the traditional street parade due to staffing and COVID-19 concerns.

Lord Mayor Basil Zempilas said Forrest Place mall would transform to ‘Footy Place’ from September 20, with AFL players and legends, panel interviews and live music on show in the week leading up to the historic event.

Footy Place would also be the location for the smaller parade on September 24 featuring players from both clubs.